The jury in the fraud trial of a luxury car dealer saw one of his alleged victims in tears in the witness box as he described how he was distracted during their dealings because his wife had cancer.

Arwel Jones, giving evidence against Gwyn Meirion Roberts, 50 of Dolgoed, Llandudno Junction, who denies 24 allegations of fraud and one of fraudulent trading, said he lost £33,000 through the transaction.

Mr Jones revealed his wife is now terminally ill with motor neurone disease.

He said he had contacted Roberts, who owned Menai Vehicle Solutions, because he wanted to upgrade his current BMW car to a BMW 5-series in August 2015.

The court heard the car dealer, whose business folded in October 2015, leaving customers without cars they had fully or partly paid for, said he had found one for £41,000, which would be imported through a dealership in Shrewsbury.

It later transpired that the vehicle actually cost £47,300, but Roberts never paid anything to the garage for the car, the court heard.

Gwyn Meirion Roberts

Mr Jones said he was offered £7,000 part-exchange for his vehicle, with a balance of £34,000 to pay, but he said things got "heated" when he refused.

The witness said he suggested he would pay the garage direct and pay Roberts whatever commission he was supposed to be making.

Mr Jones told prosecutor Matthew Corbett Jones: "He got agitated. He said: 'Are you cutting me out of the deal? That’s not the way it works.'

"I can’t remember the exact words, but I couldn’t understand it because, whatever he was getting out of the deal, he would be getting from me anyway."

The court heard that Roberts called Mr Jones back after half and hour and apologised, suggesting he pay half the money into a "client account" which would only be used to pay for the car.

Mr Jones said: "I said: 'What would happen if you went bankrupt?'

"He said, ‘I have got a big house’, and ‘I wouldn’t do that to local people’.

"Eventually, I agreed to pay £19,000 because he was putting pressure on me.

"I asked if I could pay on my credit card because it would give me some protection and he said it wasn’t possible because the machine wasn’t working or something."

Mr Jones said he kept hold of the final £1,000 due for "insurance" against the deal going sour.

He said he had already handed over his car in part exchange after Roberts promised him a hire car until his was avavilable.

"I was continually trying to phone him but he was a difficult man to get hold of," said Mr Jones.

"Towards the end, when the car was to become available, he was saying his dad was poorly.

"That’s when I decided to call the garage myself and see what was going on with the vehicle."

He said he discovered from the garage importing the car that it was worth £6,300 more than the £41,000 he had been quoted and unsuccessfully tried to contact Roberts to get him to pay the money over.

Mr Jones said he never received either his money back or his car.

Under cross examination, Mr Jones said he may have said in an email to Roberts that he knew where his father lived after the deal went bad, but said when he was seen outside Roberts's house it was a coincidence.

He said he had been looking at houses in the same area and was "surprised" to see Roberts looking at him from his window.

In all, seven witnesses said today that they had paid money for vehicles they never received, with the sums ranging from £2,500 to £33,000 and making a total of £95,700.

Some of them said they had also handed over their cars in part exchange.